


there's a tidal wave coming

by shorttfuse



Series: multi-fandom mini-fics [5]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Other, Pre-Relationship, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-18 23:46:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4724687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shorttfuse/pseuds/shorttfuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>you'd better start learning to swim</p>
            </blockquote>





	there's a tidal wave coming

**Author's Note:**

> a scene from a long...mess... revolving around cam atkinson (an ftm version of him) that i may eventually fix into something that makes any kind of sense.
> 
> for now, enjoy trans!cam being blown away by cisgirl!joey before he even meets her in person
> 
> (title from the stars by jukebox the ghost)

Columbus takes a lot of shit when they draft Ryan Johansen. They got a lot of shit for drafting Cam, too, but it's almost worse this time. Ryan goes way higher up in the draft than him, obviously, and there's something about the way she looks going up to the stage to put on the hat that feels very significant. Cam watches at home, finds himself leaning forward on the couch. Ryan's dress is silver and sleeveless, straps cutting into her broad shoulders. Her hair lays lose and wavy around her face, and even on the TV screen Cam can see the bulk of muscles in her arms. If she's got make-up on, he can't tell. Cam thinks he can see a pair of converse peaking out from under the hem of the dress when she goes up the stairs.

She looks like a hockey player.

That's what strikes Cam the most. Ryan looks like a hockey player in a dress, in a way that he can't remember any of the other girl draft picks of the past having been. They always either wore suits like the rest of the draftees, or they looked so carefully flawless, like models, in dresses that probably had actual designer names attached to them. 

Ryan stands up there, broad, tall, Blue Jackets sweater hanging off her shoulders, and grins at the cameras. There's a glint in her eyes, challanging and full of mischief. Cam can't look away. He's enraptured. 

Cam watches everything he can, obsessively, Ryan's own interviews and anything from the writers in Columbus, who are, if tactless, at least never outright mean about things like this. They've always been relatively good to him, anyways. Even so, the media still drags everything from Cam's own draft back up, says it can't be a coincidence, first Cam, trans, and now a girl. They ask if they're trying to make some sort of statement.

"I don't know about that," Jarmo hedges. "We're just trying to pick the best players we can, based on who's available and their skill and how we think they'd fit on the team."

"Yes," says Todd Richards, when asked. "It's a statement that says we're trying to build a really good professional sports team. No offense, but I'm not running a social justice campaign, I'm coaching a hockey club."

John Davidson shrugs. "If you can play, you can play."


End file.
